Which is easily resolved by using a lamp aimed at the subject.
Because of space. Your iPhone is thicker than a MacBook lid.
Last edited:
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Upcoming 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro Rumored to Feature Upgraded 1080p Webcam
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I to be more precise it looks 5.5mm. The current MBP16 is 16.5mm thick and, according to the dimentional image on the apple site, the lid looks about 1/3 of the height. 16.5/3=5.5mm (excluding the line thickness of the illustration).
The OmniVision OV02C 1080p sensor is 3mm thick so that should fit in no problem as the shell is usually milled thinner in parts to fit bigger components.
I'm probably wrong, I mean I've just spent 10 mins looking online, but it looks like it's possible.
Straight up if either MBP does NOT have a 1080p webcam or the 2021 iPad Pro 12"'s new webcam ... then both are garbaged out to the lowest part. In this era webcam part is crucial for work for so many people now working remotely and for the forseeable future.
The upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro will feature an upgraded 1080p webcam, compared to the current 720p "FaceTime HD" camera in Apple's latest MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, according to a leaker who goes by the name "Dylandkt."
And yet the iPhone has 5-6 element glass lens that take up most of that devices camera thickness. bad comparison. many other laptops by various competitors have much slimmer lids at the camera area than any MBP or MBA to date and still have 1080P for years. This has been discussed by various fans of either side ad naseum for a while now. Simply Apple was just being lazy on part sourcing OR was wanting a significant leap on image quality before bumping up. that or exhausting out significant stores of old 720P cameras for their laptops ? who knows.
Some examples with video perhaps ? Because I sure as hell cant find them.
The PixelBook Go is the only one I can think of with a 1080p laptop camera that is even remotely better than the M1 720p air but the unit is 13mm thick throughput vs 6mm in the Camera area on the MacBook Air and still not a patch on the iPhone front camera which is still far thicker than the lid on the Air.
Other manufacturers have placed the cameras in other positions to try and fit better cameras in, without much success in anything other than a better nostril view.
That was exactly my point - the iPhone is thicker and can house both a thicker / bigger sensor AND the optics to support a quality image under most conditions. But that module ain't fitting in the MBA's Lid being 6.2mm thick.
I don't disagree its form over function, but there'd be backlash either way.
Last edited:
No idea, I'm not an engineer so everything I say is pure opinion. I just find it strange that, with the sheer amount of resources available, Apple are only putting 1080p cameras in laptops now.
If Sony could do it in 2013 with a phone 6.5mm thick, surely it's doable now?
My 2013 rMBP has a lid that's about 2.6mm thick, and that includes the aluminum lip. The actual glass part that houses the webcam is thinner. The actual room inside the glass is even thinner. So even 2mm for a camera module is probably pushing it.
And of course, infamously, newer MBPs have a lid that's so much thinner that they can no longer even illuminate the Apple logo.
So, I don't know where you people are getting these 6mm numbers. It's not even close.
Is that the measurement from the very edge, the lids do bevel in quite a bit at the sides so the thickest part is right in the middle of the screen. 2.6mm seems impossibly thin tbh.
Only if you have a Tardis that’s bigger on the inside. The iPhone sensors physically will not fit in the MacBook lid. So you can either have a lightweight laptop with the lower-grade camera, or a brick or bump to get the additional depth for the camera. But no, there is nothing simple about transplanting the iPhone sensor into a MacBook.
Definitely not for the rMBP.
Even if the glass portion is slightly thicker, though (it doesn't seem to be, but you'll have to forgive me for not wanting to grab a saw to find out), no way is it even close to 6mm thick.
6mm is the thickness of the entire laptop at the webcam area on a MBA.
The iPhone's front camera module that so many folk think should be included is 6.2mm, so would require a screen about 8mm thick allowing for the chassis and glass.
Even the screen thickness on the MUCH thicker 2012 MBA is only 4mm.
Last edited:
I’ve had the latest Macbook Pro every 2-3 years for a decade & on fiber internet for half a decade; I & many creatives have yet to not complain about the quality of the Macbook Pro & so on. Similarly, people have consistently always dramatically reacted to the better video quality of people using DSLR regardless of the max video resolution a video chat outputs.
All ancedotal just like your remark. It’s such a popular & endearing fault of Apple devices, meme movements have been created when Apple has released higher-priced high-end devices yet they continue to ship their devices with Webcams of poor quality.
That is fact & daresay common knowledge in a Mac-focused platform such as this one.
The ripple in that is Apple’s obsession with thinness; they should create a new SKU Macbook that’s more accommodating of pros that’s thicker but elegant like the rest of the Pro Mac line-up.
A more functional-oriented-shaped-chassis for such a Macbook Pro has plenty of space for a high-end 4K Dolby Vision HDR front-facing camera.
If you have a ton of depth and big lens, you are going to get a properly lit image with the right lighting, and lets face it, if you go through the motions of setting up a DSLR for streaming you aren't going to be "that person" sitting on the couch with the laptop on the coffee table aiming up at your backlit silhouette.
My iMac (2010) had a better low light image @480p than the 2019 MBA purely due to physical size.
Even the iMac doesn't have a "high end" camera despite the additional depth, but its at least on Par with $100 external webcams
You would need at least 7-8mm lid thickness to include anything on par (with currently released tech) or MUCH thicker if you want "high end".
An extra 4mm of dead air in the rear of the screen would be very wasteful of space if the only improvement to the lid is the camera when:
a) People who use DSLR's and GoPro's will Still use DSLR's and GoPro's
b) So many decent external options exist.
c) People insist on using worst-case lighting (A camera needs light people)
A great high def 4k camera is not going to be a dealbreaker for the majority of people. And an acceptable image on par with the iMac or iPhone will be the best we can hope for when they can miniaturize without sacrificing low light performance.
The iMac, especially the M1 one, isn't anywhere near a pro level device. iMac is entry level computing w/ above average panels for its all-in-one chassis.
A iMac Pro as thick & thicker than the Pro Display XDR has more than enough space for a high-end, DSLR-quality camera.
I only mentioned it as its currently one (if not the) best built in webcam in any machine currently out there and as a size comparison as to the chassis depth needed for a decent 1080p camera (with current tech).
No-one, literally no-one, has managed "DSLR quality" in devices even thicker than even the XDR Dispay. Decent quality, sure (Brio/GoPro). But not close to a DSLR, and even then they still require good lighting.
You would fit a really good camera (e.g. iPhone rear sensor) in a chassis that thick. But it'd also need a massive upper bezel for the optics, be a pain in the ass to make work for anything except video calls and YouTube rant videos as it'd be non-adjustable.
Really no matter what you do to it, current tech dictates it'd still just be "a very good webcam". Not actually a very good video camera.
Last edited: